Bruce Arnold

Ear Training Process mistakes

Ear Training Process mistakes

Ear Training Process

Ear Training Process

Q: Hi, Bruce. I’m working with the One Note and Contextual Ear Training courses. (Though I purchased them a while back I’ve only recently started a consistent routine.) In One Note I started at the Beginning level – initially getting 100% of the tonics, 70-80% of the E’s, F’s and G’s (sometimes mistaking the E for a G), and about 90% of the G#’s. Everything else was close to a random guess though I could distinguish major scale tones from those outside the scale. I think I’m improving slowly. But I’ve noticed that no matter what I intend it is very difficult not to process/”cheat” by doing some form of resolving, and I fear my improvements may be coming from improving the processing rather than dropping it as you suggest. So for grins I went to the advanced level expecting it to be impossible but hoping to preclude the processing altogether. To my surprise I was immediately much more accurate at all pitches, though I still have work to do. I went to the beginner files again and devolved right back to where I had been. Am I missing out on something if I just work at the advanced level? Is this analogous to being able to play something fast on guitar but not remembering it if you slow it down? If so, can you suggest a way for me to escape my own processing at the beginner level? Thanks for your help, and for all you do.

A: So you have run into a common problem that students have with the ear training process. It is also a reason why I often recommend students get the Ear Training One Note Complete rather than just the Beginning, Intermediate or Advanced editions of the book. Here are a few considerations.

Sometimes students find that the the silence between hearing the chord progression and hearing the note is too long and they lose their sense of key which of course makes them guess the wrong note.

Sometimes as in your case of either the beginning or the intermediate edition of the One Note Ear Training a student is given too much time after hearing the note in question. During this time they distort the ear training process by resolving notes, remembering the previous exercise “note” and calculating the distance from that “note,” singing the note then down a scale to the tonic to find the answer. The list goes on and on.

Sometimes with the advanced of the One Note Ear Training a student does grasp the key center because the chords progression goes by too fast so of course they guess the wrong note.

You can see from these examples that depending on a students weakness they may have to change from beginning to intermediate to advanced and may have to juggle these many times over the course of them learning the one note ear training. So what you have been doing is completely correct. If you tend to resolve notes in your head because you have the time to do this I often recommend either Ear Training One Note Advanced or Ear Training One Note Extreme. Everyone should eventually do the Ear Training One Note Extreme because you need to make your one note ear training skills lightning fast. This will help with further steps in the ear training process but also helps you instantly identify notes when you hear them in real music. Real music of course is going by in time so you need to be quick to pick out the pitch and identify it. So I would stick with the Ear Training One Note Advanced because it seems to work for you and you do comprehend the key center which is the main issue. You could also give Ear Training One Note Extreme a try but I warn you it is fast and takes a few days to get use to its velocity.

Overall the biggest mistake students make is not keeping in touch with me so I can trouble shoot their problems. This sometimes means they need to purchase another book but one of the reasons I’ve written so many books is the fix the problems that students often have when developing their musical skills. Sometimes another method will totally fix their problem and then they will progress quicker and not get stuck at a certain level which creates a lot of stress and anxiety.

It is also recommended that you read Bruce Arnold’s Blog at his artist site. It contains more discussion of the musical topics found in these FAQs as well as other subjects of interest. You will also find the “Music Education Genealogy Chart” located here which shows you the historic significance of the music education products found on the Muse Eek Publishing Company Website.